One political party should be taken seriously going into general elections – Minister Rodrigues

Even though 24 political parties indicated their desire of contesting in the upcoming General and Regional Elections by submitting their party’s symbols to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for approval to contest the elections, on Nomination Day only seven showed up and on Friday, GECOM approved Lists of Candidates for six (6) political parties. However, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues is of the view that only one of the six remaining parties should be taken seriously. Speaking on the television programme, ‘Guyana Decides’, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Susan Rodrigues says while there may be seven parties competing, it is important that Guyanese consider who has their best interests, that of their children and that of the country’s future.

“I have been serving in the Government for the last five years and I believe that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is the only party that can take this country into a future where everyone can experience the prosperity that we speak about in our country. While there may be seven parties competing it’s important that Guyanese really consider who has the best interests, their best interests, that of their children and that of the country’s future,” she asserted.
Minister Rodrigues pointed out that recently there has been what she referred to as fly-by-night parties, they are not new as they are persons who would have broken away from parties they traditionally supported and formed their own parties.
“And that speaks volumes, because a lot of those who are competing …it’s not about ensuring that the lives of Guyanese are improved but when negotiations fall through, people break away when they don’t get positions that they feel that they deserve. They go ahead and form a new political party and then compete in the elections. So I believe that is very indicative of people’s intentions when they compete in an election. In the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, we don’t have that issue,” Minister Rodrigues stated.
She added that the political party she is representing strives to ensure that it keeps its commitments. This is why, she said, the party carefully studies what its policies would be.
“We don’t just make them up as we go along. A lot of the opposition parties, including the main opposition, the APNU (A Partnership for National Unity), they have a number of people who will go on a platform or go on a television programme and just make wild, reckless promises to people. But that doesn’t reflect the position of the party. We don’t operate like that in the PPP/C. We are in discussions about our policies going forward.”
Addressing the issue of the party’s plans should it be elected to Government to serve for the next five years, Minister Rodrigues said there would be more benefits for the Guyanese people, as she made mention of several initiatives implemented by the PPP/C Administration over the past five years including those in the Housing Ministry.
“If people want this programme to continue, if they want all of the progress that they have seen in the last five years to continue, then they know what they have to do: on September 1, you have to support President Ali because you know that you will have continuity, you know that there will be new and better initiatives and we are not a party that takes away benefits from people, so if you are already receiving something whether it’s a subsidy whether it’s a policy that you benefit from like a free school like free scholarships and house lots and so on, then you can expect more of that and if it is a monetary value that you’re receiving, you can expect an increase in that. We don’t reduce any benefit we only increase and better any policy that we had before.”